The tallest wind turbine in Limburg has recently been spinning on the BESIX Infra site in Bilzen. The turbine with an impressive tip height of 234 metres was officially inaugurated this afternoon by Flemish Energy Minister Zuhal Demir. This happened in the presence of BESIX and its subsidiary BESIX Infra, project developer ENGIE, the public-private partnership Wind4Flanders and the Bilzen city council.
With an electrical capacity of 4.2 megawatts, the wind turbine will generate 10,500 megawatt hours of renewable energy annually, good to cover the annual consumption of 3,200 families. Although the renewable electricity produced will primarily serve to supply BESIX Infra's business processes on the Bilzen site. 80 % of its electricity needs will be covered, the remaining electricity will be injected into the grid. The arrival of the wind turbine will result in avoided CO₂ emissions of 4,800 tonnes per year, equivalent to removing 2,400 diesel cars from circulation.
The wind turbine at BESIX Infra is part of the Zuidwind project, which aims to expand the number of wind turbines in the Genk-Zuid industrial area and accelerate the energy transition for local industry. As a major green energy producer in Belgium, ENGIE has a significant stake in this project. In addition to the wind turbine at BESIX Infra, ENGIE will install two others at other industrial sites. These two have now been licensed and are expected to be built in the course of next year.
The wind turbine market has evolved enormously in recent years and ENGIE continues to innovate in its projects. In 2009, ENGIE already built two 'first generation' wind turbines on the former Ford Genk site, and one more nearby afterwards. With a tip height of about 150 metres and a capacity of about 2 megawatts, these produce a lot less than the new generation of wind turbines. The new turbine at BESIX Infra will produce as much as ENGIE's three existing ones in the Genk-Zuid industrial area combined.
Zuhal Demir, Flemish Energy Minister: "In Flanders, we have long been investing heavily in renewable and green energy sources such as wind turbines. With the current Flemish government, we have shifted up a gear, and that has meanwhile done us no harm: we are number 3 in Europe when it comes to onshore wind energy. From Flanders, we also only encourage our companies to jump on the bandwagon by placing wind turbines on their business sites for their energy-consuming business processes. Especially here, in the industrial zone of Genk-Zuid, using green energy and reducing CO2 emissions is more than welcome."
Bart Verhulst, Managing Director of BESIX Infra NV: "The wind turbine is at the centre of our spacious 10-hectare site. Our vision is to innovate and reduce our carbon emissions. In this way, we will save up to several tens of thousands of euros a year on our energy bill and reduce our ecological footprint. In time, we plan to further free up the site and office building from fossil fuels and to investigate the feasibility of installing batteries as well, so that we will have electricity even in windless periods. In this way, we are also preparing to charge our future electric vehicle fleet."
Nicolas Van Den Abeele, Managing Director Renewables ENGIE in Belgium: "This wind turbine is another (literal) highlight for ENGIE. With more than 210 onshore wind turbines on the clock and a total installed capacity of about 560 megawatts, we are constantly looking for new and innovative wind projects to develop with our partnership Wind4Flanders. Collaborations like this with BESIX Infra help us to fulfil our ambition to double our onshore wind capacity to 1,000 megawatts by 2030, contributing to ENGIE's global ambition to be Net Zero Carbon by 2045."
And because a few animated images speak so much louder than words, watch this video to witness the construction of the windmill:
